University Communications and Marketing

MSUB writer-in-residence presents ‘My Miseducation’

Event takes place at 4:30 p.m., January 26, in LA Room 205 and is free and open to the public. 

Contacts:

David Craig, Director University Honors Program, 657-2908

University Relations, 657-2266

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — Billings novelist Craig Lancaster will present a final public lecture at 4:30 p.m., January 26 at Montana State University Billings in Liberal Arts Building Room 205.

Lancaster has been the MSUB writer-in-residence, hosted by the Honors Program, and will discuss “My Miseducation,” during the event. His lecture is an extension of his fall seminar, Finding Your Way into Fiction, which combined students and community auditors.

"My tenure as visiting writer at MSUB concludes with this public lecture on Jan. 26, and I would be honored indeed if you'd join me there,” Lancaster said. “"I wouldn't say it's going to be a lecture. More like a reflection.”

The author of several books, including “600 Hours of Edward,” and “The Summer of Son,” said he enjoyed the time spent working with students at the university and his final lecture, free and open to the public, will include time spent looking back on it.

"I love teachers. I came out of this thing with more respect for them than I'd ever had before, if that's even possible,” he said. “My experience this fall bridged the distance between the incomplete student I once was and the good citizen I've always tried to be.”

After a long career in journalism, Lancaster moved to Montana in 2006 and published his first novel in 2009. He is a Montana Honor Book and High Plains Book Award winner, as well as a Utah Book Awards fiction finalist.

Additionally, Lancaster is the design director for “The Montana Quarterly.” The magazine has been voted the best in the Pacific Northwest by the Society of Professional Journalists three times. Recently, Lancaster contributed to MSUB’s “Peaks to Plains” magazine, reflecting upon legendary teacher and writer Sue Hart.

University Honors Program Director David Craig said, “The Honors Guest Writer in Residence Program is a wonderful opportunity to connect students and community members with accomplished writers. It has been a tremendous success.”

Since 2012, the Honors Program has hosted a guest writer. That year, students studied Hemingway with Ernest Hemingway’s last assistant, Valerie Hemingway. Additional guest writers have included contemporary travel author Tim Cahill, a founding editor of Outside magazine, and nature, ecology, and environmental writer Gary Ferguson.

For more information about the guest writer program visit its website.